Price your app
Free account · Two quick questions · Personalized cost breakdown
What drives the cost?
The preset includes knowledge retrieval and escalation plus ai features, chat / live updates, external integrations, admin dashboard. One knowledge source, a narrow question set, and human handoff.
Compare build options
Public example using the default preset. Get your free estimate above for a breakdown of your selected scope.
| Build option | One-off labor | Recurring budget |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | $0 paid labor; your time excluded | $339 + your maintenance time |
| Freelancer | $26,888–$143,569 | $2,499–$5,019/year |
| Agency | $37,344–$180,381 | $3,339–$6,219/year |
| Superapp Pro | You build and review the app | $639/year illustrative budget |
Default preset breakdown and assumptions
- Estimated effort
- 1494–3681 hours
- Delivery effort at 30 productive hours/week
- 49.8–122.7 person-weeks
- Global agency hourly range
- $25–$49
- Global freelancer hourly range
- $18–$39
- Custom design adjustment
- +25% effort (planning assumption)
- Hosting / platform
- $240/year
- Maintenance labor
- $3,000–$5,880/year
- Additional services
- $0/year
- Apple membership
- $99/year
Hours include implementation and testing, not a delivery guarantee. Website scope starts at 12–140 hours plus 2–5 hours for each additional page. App scope starts at 400–5,000 hours depending on complexity. Selected features add the effort below. Annual domain and hosting budgets are placeholders, not provider quotes.
Selected feature assumptions
Incremental engineering hours used by this calculator.
| Feature | Hours |
|---|---|
| AI features | 80–200 |
| Chat / live updates | 80–160 |
| External integrations | 60–160 |
| Admin dashboard | 60–140 |
| Knowledge retrieval and escalation | 115–285 |
Knowledge retrieval and escalation
Answers need access to the right knowledge and a way to cite or expose uncertainty. Document updates, permissions, and retrieval evaluation are additional scope beyond a chat box.
When should a chatbot hand off to a person
Define escalation for missing knowledge, account actions, and unresolved issues. Support staffing and model usage remain ongoing costs even when responses are automated.
A cheaper way to start with Superapp
Build a focused version yourself before commissioning a full custom project. Superapp Pro is $25 a month; the subscription covers its plan allowance, while your time, extra usage, integrations, hosting, and specialist work remain part of the budget. A Superapp site is an alternative implementation, not a guarantee of WordPress or Shopify compatibility.
Compare Superapp plansSources and methodology
Rates are global marketplace benchmarks, not US-only agency quotes. Freelancer and agency ranges overlap because they describe different samples. WordPress.com Personal and Shopify Basic use annual billing, exclude introductory promotions and taxes, and replace the hosting budget. Feature hours and recurring budgets are our explicit planning assumptions.